DANCE PREVIEW: Choreographer brings 'big show' to Boston

Widely regarded as one of today's most exciting choreographers, Mark Morris brings a version of “Acis & Galatea” that features musical accompaniment from the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston.

By Iris FangerFor The Patriot Ledger

When the curtain rises on “Acis and Galatea,” you know this much-heralded marriage of opera and dance by the Handel and Haydn Society and the Mark Morris Dance Group is going to be something special.

“We’re putting on a big show. It’s not a black box, modern dance, poverty show. I’ve done them. I don’t want to do them anymore,” Morris said. The four performances, presented and co-commissioned by the Celebrity Series of Boston, run May 15 through May 18 at the Citi Shubert Theatre.

Widely regarded as one of today’s most exciting choreographers, Morris brings a version of “Acis & Galatea” that features musical accompaniment from the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston. These performances mark the show’s East Coast premiere after a well-received Berkeley, Calif., debut in April.

A force to be reckoned with in dance since the mid-‘80s, Morris has set his newest work to Mozart’s 1788 arrangement of Handel’s opera. “I think the Mozart version is better and more detailed emotionally. It’s a bigger sound for a bigger theater, a very rich orchestration, very good for a show,” said Morris, speaking by phone from his East Side home in Manhattan.

“Acis and Galatea” is a pastoral opera that features 18 dancers, four singer soloists and sets and costumes from big names: Adrianne Lobel is the scenic designer and fashion guru Isaac Mizrahi designed the costumes. The production may be grand, but the plot of Handel’s opera, based on the Greek myth, is a simple one. The nymph, Galatea, is in love with the young shepherd, Acis. However, the cyclops Polyphemus, smitten with Galatea, falls into a jealous rage and murders Acis. Using her semi-divine powers, Galatea transforms Acis into a river and makes him immortal.

Filled with beautiful passages of music, which are set to a scenario and lyrics by John Gay (and others), “Acis and Galatea” is based on the story told in Ovid’s “Metamorpheses.” The opera became Handel’s most popular.

“I only do stuff that I love. I’m not looking for something that will drive me crazy. It is honest, direct, incredibly wrought music. It’s a piece I’ve known all my life,” Morris said.

Morris, a 1991 MacArthur Foundation Fellow, has enlisted British conductor Nicholas McGegan to lead the Handel and Haydn orchestra and chorus. McGegan is a veteran of previous Morris undertakings such as the full-length “L’Allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato” (Handel), and the operas “Dido and Aeneas” (Purcell) and “Platee” (Rameau).

“I always take my own conductor. I wouldn’t do it otherwise.” Morris said.

McGegan worked with Morris for several weeks during the recent rehearsal period.

“Nearly all the choreography had been done, but I was still part of the creative process,” McGegan said.

“Mark is a great fan of the Mozart version, as am I. It certainly works very well in the theater. If Handel’s is a black-and-white movie then you could say that Mozart’s is the colorized version,” McGegan said.

At 57, Morris remains a riveting figure – on and off the stage. A dancer-turned-choreographer, Morris has worked with the world’s top dancers, including Mikhail Baryshnikov, and has been commissioned by the most prestigious ballet companies around the globe, including the Boston Ballet, The Royal Opera House and the American Ballet Theater. He started the Mark Morris Dance Group in 1980.

Morris said he worked on this production of “Acis and Galatea” for a couple of years. Long before the first rehearsal, “I study and think and research and think some more. I read the score and don’t read the score. I listen to the music. I read all the support material, read every translation of Ovid I can find. I work out the dancers’ bits first, then fit the singers in. I work on it for months, in between tours and teaching. I started with the set design two years ago,” he said.

Going forward, Morris isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. His building in Brooklyn is busy 24/7 with rehearsals and classes and the company will tour Asia and Europe at the end of May. This summer, the troupe will perform July 23-27 at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, then “Acis and Galatea” runs at the Lincoln Center in New York. That’s followed by a U.S. State Department overseas tour in the fall. Morris recently taught a company class at American Ballet Theatre, in preparation for a new work, commissioned for 2015.

After the West Coast premiere of “Acis and Galatea,” a fan spoke to Morris after the show and told him she’d never seen anything like it. “I told her there’s never been anything like it. She said, ‘Thank you.’ I said, ‘Thank you.’” After relating the encounter, Morris rung off, on his way for a few days of vacation before coming to Boston.

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